All ILO Newsroom content
June 2019
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Interview
Interview with Sebastián Schindel, Director of El patrón
24 June 2019
Based on real facts, the hard-hitting film of Schindel El patrón unpacks the horrors of modern day slavery. He speaks to the ILO on the making of the film and what made him deal with this subject.
October 2011
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Video
ILO Director General Visits "Occupy Wall Street"
27 October 2011
ILO Director General Juan Somavia went to Zuccotti Park in the financial district of Manhattan, to have a first-hand look and listen to the people of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City.
September 2011
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Article
The story of Munti: Tortured to death in Malaysia
15 September 2011
Suparmo, 47 years old, still cannot forget his wife’s condition. Her teeth were broken. Her backbone was fractured. She had bruises and stab wounds on her face and body. His wife’s name was Munti. She was only 36 years old and was in a coma. “I couldn’t believe that she could still be alive with all those severe injuries,” Suparmo recalled. “She had been severely tortured by her employers.”
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Article
The story of Umi Saodah: Tortured and trapped in war-torn Palestine
15 September 2011
“I’m still angry and cannot forget what they have done to me,” Umi Saodah, a 34-year-old, recalled. It’s still crystal clear in her mind how four family members of her employer tortured her two years ago. “They showed no mercy. If they were living here in Indonesia, I would retaliate,” she said.
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Article
The story of Halimah: A father’s persisting regrets
15 September 2011
Kohar, 49 years old and a resident of Cianjur, West Java, has five children: four daughters and a son. His wife died in 1999 and his two eldest daughters have worked in Saudi Arabia. When his third daughter, Halimah, 27 years of age, asked his permission to follow in her sisters’ footsteps working in Saudi Arabia as a migrant domestic worker, he could not say no.
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Article
The story of Elli Anita: Resilience in the face of adversity
15 September 2011
Elli Anita is the third daughter of a family who joined the government-sponsored resettlement program from Jember in East Java to Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, when she was 18 years old. She holds an elementary school level leaving certificate and was expected to work on the family farm. However, after listening to the stories of fellow villagers, she was keen to work overseas as a domestic worker and see other countries.
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Article
The story of Siti Tarwiyah: Beaten to death in Saudi Arabia; blood money is all that remains of a mother’s love
15 September 2011
“I’m still so traumatized. I can not forget my late wife. Her body was covered in wounds as a result of regular caning,” recalled Hamid, the husband of Siti Tarwiyah who died in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, three years ago. Her body was bruised everywhere because members of the employers family used to smash her up against walls. She was only 32 years old when she died.
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Article
The story of Ceriyati: Escaping abuse in Malaysia
15 September 2011
Ceriyati Binti Dapin, a 37-year-old mother of a handicapped son, had no other choice but to become a migrant domestic worker in order to supplement the income of her husband Ridwan, who worked as an ojek driver in the Central Java town of Brebes. Despite the long recruitment process and delays in getting employment in Malaysia, she had a strong desire to help her husband cover her son’s regular medical costs.
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Article
The story of Cassina: Trapped in war-torn Iraq
15 September 2011
Like most of her peers in Subang, West Java, Cassina had a strong desire to lift her family out of poverty as it had a debilitating effect on them since her marriage in 1996. Her husband’s daily income as an ojek driver was inadequate to cover their daily needs and pay for their ten year-old son’s monthly school tuition fees. Having heard the success stories about her fellow villagers working in Malaysia and Middle East, she decided she wanted to work in Abu Dhabi.
October 2010
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Video interview
ILO Director-General Juan Somavia highlights the courage of the 33 Chilean miners
13 October 2010
With the rescue team still at work, ILO Director General Juan Somavia spoke with ILO TV and emphasized the strength and courage of the 33 trapped Chilean miners, their families and the Chilean people who together made possible what seemed so impossible.